The coins of Salzburg in the Prague National Museum:

September 6th, 2018 by Peter Macho

In April 2018 the Salzburg Numismatic Society visited the coin cabinet of the Prague National Museum. Since the museum which usually houses the collection has been under renovation for years, we drove to the branch Theresienstadt, where the collection inventory is currently stored in the former buildings of the Maria Theresian military.

Ulrich Höllhuber, chairman of the SNG, had arranged with the collection’s curator, Dr. Jiri Militky, that we could examine all coins from Salzburg he could find in the inventory. Judging from earlier excursions to the museums in Berlin, Hamburg, Gotha, St. Gallen, and more, we had expected to see roughly a couple hundred of coins.

The greater our surprise when Dr. Militky presented us with about 2800 Salzburg coins, which required two carts to transport into the exhibition room - all in all forty wooden trays filled with coins!

As opposed to other museums, Prag has consolidated all the Salzburg coins in a single collection, which is enormously helpful in exploring this specialized area. Normally, you find them in museums spread across different categories such as new acquisitions, bequests, old assets, big finds, archeological finds, internal medal and show coin collection, and so forth.

The inventory numbers and comments make it possible to determine each individual piece’s origin.

The (well sorted) Prag Collection’s volume put it among the world’s largest Salzburg collections (next to Vienna and Munich). In addition, as explained to us by Dr. Militky, there are even rarer and more well-preserved coins in the museum’s main building (which is currently not accessible). Moreover, about 1000 medieval Salzburg coins have not yet been processed.

The rarest coin is the unedited golden pattern of the 1559 heller. On the upper and lower rim, rudiments of a handle can be made out. This allows conjecture that this coin might have been coined for an archiepiscopal gem, as was common in Renaissance times. The collections in Vienna (Kunst Historisches Museum) and Munich provide sufficient examples of the type “Larger Portrait Medal”, among them golden pearls and smaller coins and medals. A portrait medal of Kuenburg is existing.

The double ducat 1568 features an incorrect coat of arms (as pointed out by C. M.). The Material ist the color of copper (as would be gold with a low percentage of gold).

side note: The 10 Kreuzer 1568 shows the identical circumscription and cadencies; however, the cadencies here are distributed the opposite way: Leaf under miter, crosses left and right. The Salzburg coat of arms with the two cross beams has been done very negligently. See Image (Dorotheum Vienna, NOT Prague).